#audrey and marissa

Went to college and as it turns out the person I became best friends with owns four-wheelers. So of course when I went to go visit her over Christmas break, she took me four-wheeling and let me drive. Then made fun of me because I was so cautious, but hell, there were a lot of trees around haha sorry I’m not sorry. It was still awesome.

~Marissa

Dunzo.

With our 1st year of college behind us, I think it’s safe to say we both left our comfort zones and tried something new.

For me, a girl who hadn’t been in athletics since my freshman year of high school, I became a Division 1 athlete. In high school I had reached that point in my life where I just said I was done with sports. Growing up I was always involved with sports, so to my parents this came as a shock. I always had that feeling like something was missing from my life though. When I got to college there was a meeting for the rowing team - no strings attached and more importantly, no experience necessary. If you wanted to get involved and try it, that was great, but you could also decide it wasn’t for you. After the meeting, I definitely had a feeling it was something I needed to try. After my very first practice on the water, I was hooked. That’s the thing about rowing - it just gets you. Obviously it’s not for everyone - 4 am alarms, 5:30 am rows in 30 degree weather (rain or shine…well more like blackness as the sun has yet to come up), a body that is constantly in pain no matter how many stretches you do to try to relieve it, lactic acid buildup in your muscles (particuarly your legs) from pushing your muscles to near failure, no social life, every hour of my day is schedule, and in case morning practices weren’t enough there are always those infamous 2-a-days - yeah, this is what I have come to willingly put myself through. 
I would definitely say I learned a lot about myself via rowing. Never in my life did I ever think I could do this. Rowing is just as mental as it is physical. You have to be trained to learn that your mind will tell you to stop, but your body will keep going, you just have to push through the hell. Yeah it sucks when my entire body is in an extreme amount of pain, but it feels awesome after when you’re on your rowing high (and when you get to eat a bajillion calories a day because rowing is one of the highest calorie-burning sports. It’s just my excuse to eat all the time and only get semi-judged for it.)

As for Audrey, she auditioned and performed in a play - something she said she would do in high school but never got time for. And she also ran a half marathon…in freaking Disney World with the characters along the sides cheering the runners on. Lucky bitch. But I can’t speak too much for her because we go to different schools so lord only knows if she tried anything else new (oh and she brought her best friend some cuppy cakes to one of her races near Audrey’s school hehe yeah she’s my favorite person :p )

~Marissa

We constantly add stuff to it, but here’s what we have so far:

1. Go skydiving
2. Go wingdiving in the Netherlands
3. Swim with dolphins
4. Go to the zoo again [done]
5. Go to the aquarium again [done]
6. Travel to Australia
7. Swim with sharks in Australia
8. Travel to Germany
9. Travel to London
10. Go surfing again
11. Go in a wind tunnel
12. Take a road trip
13. Travel to Canada
14. Shoot a gun
15. Inspire someone
16. Be a good role model
17. Go SCUBA diving again
18. Go snorkeling
19. Make a big donation to charity
20. Meet someone famous and have a conversation with them
21. Go to the Olympics
22. Go to at least 1 FIFA world cup game
23. Make a difference
24. Send a message in a bottle
25. Get a dog (Marissa)
26. Run up the Philadelphia art museum steps like Rocky
27. Give a stranger a $5 bill
28. Say “yes” to every yes or no question for a day
29. Drive a boat
30. Learn how to sail
31. Fall in love
32. Get married
33. Go to a world series game
34. Go to college and graduate [1st part done]
35. Graduate from High School [done]
36. Attend a PSU football game
37. Run a marathon
38. Do a triathlon
39. Do the polar bear plunge
40. Meet a famous athlete
41. Go to Seattle
42. Pet an elephant (Marissa)
43. Go cliff diving
44. Peaceful protest something
45. Backpack through Europe
46. Speak in a bunch of different accents in a conversation to confuse people
47. Eat breakfast at Blue Moon Cafe
48. Climb a mountain
49. Learn how to do a snowboard trick (Marissa)
50. Take a spontaneous trip
51. Go to a midnight premier  of a movie [done]
52. Have a food fight
53. Try luge and/or skeleton
54. Tailgate [done]
55. Go to an Army-Navy football game [done]
56. Get into college [done]
57. Zipline
58. Flip into a pool
59. Try trapeze
60. Run around in the snow with shorts and a t-shirt on (Marissa)
61. Get a picture on a boat and have the caption say “I’m on a boat!” [done]
62. Successfully get off of a ski lift (Marissa)
63. Stay overnight in the ice hotel
64. See Macklemore in concert
65. Travel to Atlantis
66. Go to Sundance Film Festival
67. Dress like a hipster for a day
68. See the Northern Lights in person
69. Go to the color-by-number museum in PDX and submit my own “artwork”
70. Climb the Sydney Bridge in Australia
71. See the Great Barrier Reef in person
72. Travel to Greece
73. Be in 2 places at once
74. Go to the trampoline park in Denmark
75. Dress up as Harry Potter characters for a whole day (other than Halloween)
76. Go to Georgetown Cupcakes and (of course) get some dang cupcakes! [partially done - had the cuppycakes, Audrey went, Marissa didn’t]
77. Get a tattoo (Audrey)
78. Donate blood (Audrey)
79. Get a book published
80. Reenact the “THIS IS SPARTA!” scene from 300
81. Don’t use 1 arm for a day (not trying to be offensive with this one so please don’t take it the wrong way - it’s just a way to help us realize how good we have it and how we should appreciate what we have)
82. Go to a Dropkick Murphys concert
83. Watch rehabbed turtles be returned to sea
84. Let a floating lantern up into the sky
85. Stay at the Poseidon Undersea Resort in Fiji
86. Cheer on random strangers in public
87. Say hi and wave to random strangers in public [done]
88. Try something new at college [done]
89. Try Archery (Audrey: Complete - Marissa: Not Complete)
90. Drive a four-wheeler [completed]

So last summer, TBL tweeted our friend Nate’s TBL-inspired blog. He has an amazing and inspiring story and this is basically his journey back to health and back to being a normal teenager. So I think it’s about time I post his website if any of you want to read it :)

And to the buried life: thank you guys so much this meant the world to him to have the people that inspire him most post this and recognize him, and it meant the world to me to have my best friend, who has gone through so much, be probably the happiest/most excited he had been in long time and feel like all the crap he went through was worth it. You guys helped to keep him fighting through everything, and you guys helped him be here today - happy and healthy and on his way to his next adventure (college) this fall. 

Okay so Audrey went, I didn’t, but both of us have had the cupcakes.

I drove by one day - on a weekday nonetheless - at an obscure hour, and the line was still redonkulous. Yeah, when my time in limited in D.C., I’m not going to spend 2 hours waiting for cupcakes. Sorry I’m not sorry. 

Anyway, both of us agree that while the cupcakes were indeed good, they weren’t exactly what we expected. What with all the hype, the 2 hour long wait just to get 1 cupcake, it’s not exactly worth it. While they are good, there is nothing really special about them. They’re just like the cupcakes we bake at home pretty much, not too different.

If you’re in D.C. and looking for some awesomely awesome cupcakes, but don’t want to wait for forever and a day at Georgetown Cupcakes, try Sprinkles Cupcakes (they actually have locations in 10 cities throughout the USA). Sprinkles has more cupcake flavors to choose from (yeah, you can even get your puppy a cupcake there, no lie), they’re definitely more special than something I could easily make at home (I may be a skilled baker, but shit, I can’t make a chai latte cupcake. Who the hell even thought that was a possibility??). I’ve never been there myself (Audrey surprised me by bringing me 2 cupcakes to 1 of my races this year, best friend of the year award? I think so.) but seriously. Go get them. They’re amazing. 

~Marissa

Yep. This happened and I feel like a boss, but i’ll stop quoting lonely island songs :) (even though they are pretty awesome haha)

I picked up rowing in college, took 1 of my pictures from a meet, and posted it to facebook with the caption “I’m on a boat”

Win? I think so. Another list item off the list? Definitely.

~Marissa

I actually crossed this one off in the summer, but hell, college is time consuming. Seriously you don’t really know until you get there just how freaking time consuming it is. Conveniently, my little cousin had her birthday party at a zoo, so I got to cross off a list item without even really trying…for once. :)

~Marissa

This was probably one of the most fun bucket list items. Ever. No joke.
In Disney World we did this, and it became sort of a game. We’d wave to people and say hi, and if someone waved back We’d cheer and shout “THANK YOU!!!!!”

Probably the best reaction was from a guy our age. We waved and said hi, as usual, and then he walked over and said: “Hi!!!! Do I know you?” Of course we said no and explained what we were doing and we had a quick conversation with him, and if he is reading this (slim chance, we forgot to mention our little “project”), then sir, you are awesome.

I (Marissa) also saw one of the extras they called out from the audience for the Indiana Jones and said “HI! YOU DID GREAT IN THE INDIANA JONES SHOW!!!!!” He was flattered.

Probably one of my favorite days in the park.

Did I mention we are very enthusiastic people? :)

~Marissa

For senior week, we went to Disney World with some friends, and to help cope with our depression of leaving the happiest place on earth, we walked right into a big crowd and started cheering the people on. We yelled things like “WOOHOO! YOU GO INTO THAT PARK!” “GO! GO! GO! HAVE FUN!” and so on. The confused and “what kind of freaks are these people?” stares made it even better, and crossed another item off the list. BOOM.

~Marissa

Okay, okay, so it wasn’t midnight. It was still one in the morning and I’m still crossing this one off the list, because it was close enough, I arrived at midnight, and it was AWESOME! haha

Saw a 1:00 am premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It was AMAZING and depressing at the same time because it marked the end of an era :(

The theater was packed, I drank 24 ounces of coffee beforehand and couldn’t stop shaking until around 5:30 am , my friend shouted “WHO’S EXCITED?!” in between some of the previews when it was quiet, and everyone freaked. People were dressed up (I went as Hermione), I stayed awake for a full 24 hours, and through it all Audrey was asleep at home because she had to get her wisdom teeth out the following morning. Sucks, I know. 

Oh and did I mention I saw it twice on opening day? It was so good I saw it again that night. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should go see it. Seriously. :)

~Marissa

Okay, so Audrey was lame and had to work. I crossed this one off with another friend. May i just add it was the 1st time I have ever driven out of state, and the 1st time I drove for over an hour (glad to know I have had my license for 2 years).

Took a road trip to visit friends at the beach and stay the night. By the time we got our bathing suits and sun block on, and our butts down to the actual beach it got all cloudy and started to rain. Fun stuff, I know. Haha but at least it was sunny the following day and at least we crossed off another list item! (Of course I forgot my camera and the one on my phone was broken, so no picture or video for this one)

~Marissa

Well, it’s only been forever and a day since we updated, so it’s about time to do so.

We wrote countless papers, pulled some all-nighters, became caffeine addicted due to said all-nighters, made some really awesome friends along the way, and we are now gradumacated! Schwing! (Wayne’s World anyone?) Well we actually graduated over a month ago, but hey, it’s been a busy summer, and now that we’re off to college in less than a month, I figured it was time to update this tumblr with everything we have crossed off over the summer.

~Marissa

Hello world!
Yes. It may, in fact, seem like, we either …
a) Fell off the face of the earth completely
or
b) Don’t actually exist.
I am sorry to inform you that, yes, we did fall off the face of the earth, and pleased to add that yes, we are in fact real people. We’ve just gone into a slight hiatus because of school, exams, part time jobs, dance recitals, attacks from rabid monkeys and everything in between. Summer is coming up fast, so be expecting some mayhem and tomfoolery in the near future! (Side note: crossing off 2 list items in 2 weeks…have us a little day trip planned. Because we’re just so nifty.)
All the best,
Aud
PS. I’ve also added a few new items to the list! Check it out!